Virtual summer school created to reach students in a rural Missouri district has gone statewide

Hillsboro, Mo. (Best Places map)

An online summer school program created to reach students in one rural Missouri county that didn't have enough students or teachers for traditional classes has spread statewide, Paige Hulsey reports for KMOV, a television station in St. Louis.

The Missouri Online Summer Institute, funded by the state, offers more than 100 core and elective courses for middle and high school, at no cost to the students, Hulsey writes. Students can transfer all credits earned back to their school district.

The subjects offered include math, science, foreign languages, social studies, language arts and a variety of required electives. Students can also enroll in advance placement and career readiness courses. The program is structured with 'online classrooms' for online interaction between students and teachers. Online tutoring is also available.

Matt Zoph, superintendent of the Grandview R-2 School District in Hillsboro, Mo., told Hulsey, "It originally started because we had a K-8 summer school and we were trying to figure out something we could do with our Grandview students in the high school. So we brain stormed and decided we would have a virtual class where the kids don’t have to come into the building and our teachers didn’t have to come in and it started from there with our students and then we started getting requests from other districts. It’s kind of grown into a statewide program." The program is now in its sixth year and, "expects to enroll 1,000 students from around the state," Husley noted.